Videocassette players and recorders (VCRs) have been quite popular and their popularity is expected to continue increasing. One of the reasons for this popularity is the wide variety of programming which is available, either by direct recording for playback and personal use later, or by purchase or rental of prerecorded videocassette. Such videocassettes are generally available in standardized formats, with the VHS format currently being the most popular. The videocassette itself generally consists of a closed housing having a length of tape connected at its ends to a pair of reels therein between which the tape is wound or unwound during play or rewind as the case may be. The tape is generally guided between the reels along a tape path extending along the front edge of the cassette for interaction with a tape head within the VCR, and a pivotal door is usually provided o that edge for protecting the exposed tape before the videocassette has been inserted into the VCR.
Conventional videocassettes are not particularly bulky. However, the available storage space is usually limited and so their storage can become a problem as one's collection of videocassettes increases. This problem is expected to worsen with increasing popularity of VCRs and the consequential increasing size of videocassette libraries used with them. As this occurs, we expect that the available space for storage of the videocassettes will at some point have the practical effect of limiting the number of videocassettes which can be kept and used.
Videocassette adapters are available for adapting relatively small cassettes for use with standard formats. Such adapters generally consist of a housing into which the small cassette can be inserted, for example, through a releasable top door. After insertion, a mechanism in the adapter is manually activated to pull the tape out from the supply and take-up reels in the cassette to which it is connected, and guide the tape along the proper path for playback or recording upon insertion of the adapter into the VCR. Such adapters are typically used with small cassettes used in camcorders, but have limited tape capacity and playing time. For example, the small cassettes used with such adapters typically have a maximum playing time of only about twenty minutes versus up to about 2-6 hours (depending upon speed) available with a standard size videocassette. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,677,494 to Protas, 4,432,510 to Ogata, 4,504,876 to Nagaoka, and 4,567,536 to Tsuchiya are representative of the prior art in this regard. Such adapters do not address the problem of achieving more efficient tape storage without sacrificing capacity and playing time.
The need has thus arisen for a compact tape cartridge which provides the same or better capacity when inserted into a carrier in order to form a standard a videocassette, but which makes for better use of available storage when removed from the carrier.